Friday, June 28, 2013

Baked Egg Rolls are one of our favorite summer meals, they are easy to make, light, and are a perfect summer meal. We usually pair them with steamed white rice from our rice cooker. Sometimes we make them with shrimp, sometimes with pork, and other times we use chicken. Whichever meat we use we make them the same way. Here I am going to show you how I make them with shrimp.

We use Salad Shrimp in our egg rolls, they are small and inexpensive. This bag is $1.59 at Kroger, but Wal-Mart and Meijers also sell them inexpensively.

We also use Nasoya Egg Roll Wraps, we don't generally use the whole pack and they refrigerate well. I usually keep the unused ones in a Ziploc bag.

The first thing you will want to do is make the filling for your egg rolls. In a large stir-fry pan mix together 3 cups of finely shredded cabbage (I like using Napa cabbage but we also use regular cabbage if that is all we have on hand, 1 cup finely diced carrots, 1/2 cup bean sprouts, 1 package of salad shrimp, and 4 tablespoons of Oyster Sauce. I then sauté the entire filling on the stove until vegetables are tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Once the filling is ready it is time to start filling your egg rolls. This filling should make 10 to 12 egg rolls. You will want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees at this time.

Lay out your egg roll wrap in a diamond shape with the bottom point facing you. In the center of the wrap spread out about 2 tablespoons of the egg roll filling.

Fold up the bottom half of the egg roll wrapper over top of the filling.

Next, fold in the sides of the egg roll wrapper.

Finally, roll over the top of the egg roll wrapper and place egg rolls on a greased baking sheet. When all egg rolls are wrapped and on the baking sheet use a pastry brush to lightly coat egg rolls with olive oil. Now you are ready to bake the egg rolls in the preheated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Pot Pie is one of the easiest ways to use up extra turkey or chicken. When I have leftover chicken or turkey I will usually freeze it until I am ready to make the pot pie and then on the day I plan to make it I will thaw it out. I have also been known to make up the filling for the pot pie and freeze it, then on the day I want to make my pot pie I will pull it out, then top it with either a homemade or frozen pie crust. This recipe calls for a mayo based pie crust, which is simple to make but any pie crust will do. I make my turkey and chicken pot pie using the same recipe, the only difference is the type of meat I use.

Filling Ingredients:

3 cups chopped potatoes

2 cups fresh or frozen peas

1 cup chopped carrots

2 to 3 cups chopped turkey or chicken

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

1 cup white wine

1/3 cup flower

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1. Prepare all vegetables for filling.

2. Add the diced vegetables and chicken or turkey into a bowl.

3. In a saucepan whisk together the ingredients for the gravy - chicken broth, milk, white wine, flour, and cornstarch. Heat over medium heat until mixture thickens.

4. Pour gravy over vegetables and meat, then stir together thoroughly coating everything with gravy.

5. Pour entire mixture into an 11x14 cake pan.

Crust

2 Cups Milk

2 Cups Mayo

2 Cups Flour

6. Mix all crust ingredients together and then pour over top of pot pie filling.

It was soo nice to be back to my menu plan last week. The week went by much smoother with it and we actually stuck to it for once! The only exception was on Sunday night when we missed the Chicken Pot Pie, which was moved to tonight's supper. I have several items on this week's menu plan that I am working on recipes for, so be on the lookout for new recipes on the blog. I am also going to be updating my post from my Bread Machine French Bread, which was written before the days of Pinterest. It is one of my most popular posts and I am constantly getting asked for pictures to make it easier to pin. Speaking of Pinterest, if you don't already follow me on Pinterest please do, I have a ton of recipe boards there, as well as craft ideas, and party/holiday planning boards. You can find my Pinterest boards here.

The Malco Theaters Summer Film Fest runs throughout June and
July with admission at just $2.Movies
scheduled for the 2013 summer are Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Ice Age:Continental Drift, Horton Hears a Who, Diary
of a Wimpy Kid 2:Roderick Rules, Space
Chimps, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakel, and Alvin and the
Chipmunks:Chipwrecked.

Running from June 12th to August 7th
Classic Cinemas will host their annual summer Wednesday Morning Movie Series on
Wednesday mornings at 9 AM with admission being $1.This summer’s movies will include Madagascar
3:Europe’s Most Wanted, Hotel
Transylvania, Ice Age:Continental
Drift, Diary of a Wimpy Kid:Dog Days,
Rise of the Guardians, Hotel for Dogs, Muppets From Space, and Escape From
Planet Earth.You can learn more about
Classic Cinemas Wednesday Morning Movie Series by visiting the Classic Cinemas
website.

Starting June 11th and going through August 15th
Muvico Theaters will be offering free kids movies on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and
Thursdays at 10 AM.Included in this
summer’s free kids movies lineup at Muvico Theaters are Despicable Me, The
Lorax, Madagascar 3, Clifford’s Really Big Movie, Rise of the Guardians, Happy
Feet Too, How to Train Your Dragon, Hotel Transylvania, The Smurfs, and Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

It is strawberry season and I couldn’t be more excited.I love fresh strawberries and try to stock up
on fresh strawberries when they are in season locally so that I can enjoy them
all winter long while avoiding the ones from the supermarket.During strawberry season strawberries can be
found at roadside stands, u-pick farms, and farmers markets for rock bottom
prices.They are easy to preserve, so
there is no reason not to stock up on them.Freezing strawberries is simple, and in fact will probably be the
easiest fruit or vegetable you will preserve all summer.Here is how you freeze strawberries for use
all year long.

The first step in freezing strawberries is to choose the
strawberries that you want to preserve.Strawberries are very delicate and can go bad quickly so it is important
to freeze them right away while they are at their freshest point.You will want to use strawberries that are
perfect with no blemishes or mushiness, save the ones that are a little bruised
or just not perfect for use in other recipes.After you have chosen the strawberries that you will be freezing it is
time to move on to the next step, rinsing the strawberries.You will want to gently wash and dry the
strawberries, paying close attention so as not to soak the berries in the water
too long as it will result in a loss of the flavor.

After you have cleaned the strawberries now it is time to
remove the stem and hull the berries.At
this point you will also need to determine if you want to freeze them whole or
slice them, or you can always do a little bit of both.If you decide to slice the strawberries now
is the time to do so.

Next is another important decision, do you want to freeze
them with sugar on them or not.Freezing
the strawberries without sugar will allow them to be stored in the freezer
without freezer burn for several months but freezing them with sugar on them
will extend the storage life of your strawberries.Strawberries frozen in sugar will last longer
as the sugar helps to prevent freezer burn, and also helps to preserve their
color.If you choose to freeze your
strawberries in sugar now is the time to cover them in a light dusting of
sugar.

Now your strawberries are ready to go into the freezer.Now you will want to place your strawberries
flat on a baking sheet, being careful that they do not touch one another, and
place them in the freezer.Allow the
strawberries to stay on the freezer pan until they are frozen solid.Once the strawberries have frozen solid you
will want to remove them from the baking sheet to either a freezer bag or
freezer container.Be sure to label your
container and place it in the freezer.After
you have placed your container in the freezer you are done.

It's been a busy end of the school year for us. On May 19th we had my son's birthday, on May 21st we had our last day of homeschool co-op, on the 22nd we had our end of the year program for our homeschool co-op and on May 23rd my husband went into the hospital for a multi-level spinal fusion. I knew his surgery would keep me away from the blog for a while but he ended up with a post-surgery infection after he was released from the hospital and had to be readmitted. So needless to say a menu plan has not been on my mind lately. Now that we are at home things seem to be falling back into a routine, and I am missing my menu plan, so I am thrilled to be taking the time to plan one out for this week. If you don't menu plan you really should take the time to do it, it makes my life so much easier and makes grocery shopping a cinch.

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I am a travel consultant specializing in Disney Destinations with Academy Travel, a Platinum Earmarked Agency. Let me help you take the stress out of planning your Disney vacation. My services are always FREE.